Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to make one point and then ask about foreign licences. It seems that we have a structural history here, where Mr. Waide has outlined that we have more and older cars and people are finding it hard to get new cars. Perhaps electric cars will make it a whole deal easier because there are less moving parts to test, etc., in the long run. Does the authority need more buildings, as well as more staff, and more lanes, and do those lanes need to be operable, whether for 24 hours or 20 hours, together with shiftwork? I am not asking people to work these hours but businesses like restaurants, pubs, or cinemas deal with customers at times when they want to be dealt with and some people find it difficult to get out of work, and so on.

I echo the point that Deputy Carey made in respect of the car rental sector. The authority need to liaise with it directly. People have written back to car rental companies and have more or less said that it is what it is but they are having problems sourcing new cars and they want to be able to give tourists cars that are NCT tested.

On the point of the foreign licences, can an EU citizen drive in Ireland with their own certificate and driver's licence? I presume there is no issue with that. On that basis, why are so many Romanians switching licence if the Romanian licence is perfectly valid?

I make this next point because the Moldovan ambassador raised it with me with me, but what can the authority do to help the many Moldovans in Ireland who want recognition of their licences? Mr. Waide has mentioned North Macedonia but what about Moldova and what can be done to improve the liaison? There are approximately 30,000 Moldovans in Ireland, some of whom have Romanian licences but many do not, and we are constantly being told that there is a shortage of drivers in the freight industry, in Dublin Airport, and pretty much across every industry that need drivers. Yet we have people who cannot get licences in Ireland because we do not seem to have recognition. What is the challenge there?